Re: [cobalt-users] META FAQ Suggestion

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alfredo wrote:

> Referencing a number of comments about the Knowledge Base and why we
> should push Cobalt/Sun to maintain it better.
> 
> I don't think we can expect Cobalt/Sun to clean up the KB. We're
> dealing with a machine whose "authorized" scope is relatively narrow
> (the GUI and what IT does) but whose users can and often do go way
> beyond that scope. In many real life situations, we MUST go beyond it.

There are many KB articles that go beyond the scope of Cobalt's GUI. 
They do start with the word UNSUPPORTED in all caps, but they are there.

Cobalt has always allwed unsupported methods in the knowledgebase.

> In that sense, most people agree, the KB is not very helpful. And I
> think it can sometimes be downright confusing and misleading. If a
> Raq administrator has to rely on the manual and the KB to deal with
> day to day issues, he/she is going to fail. Hence the posting of so
> many "basic" issues on this list -- they aren't "basic" if all you
> have is the manual and the KB.

Have you ever gone out and paid $150 for Red Hat Linux Enterprise
Edition?  Do you know what kind of documentation you get?  Even less
than what you get with a RaQ.  Cobalt sells an appliance and tells you
how to use it as an appliance.

They know that you'lll want to go beyond that, and this list, and the
developers list, and the knowledge base, are all designed to help you do
that without buying Cobalt's support option.

Beyond that, there's already lots of Linux documentation available.  You
can buy the entire LDP (Linux Documentation Project) output in book form
from Sybex for us$19.95 if you don't want to read it online.

The missing link (to me, anyway) is how the interface interacts with the
underlying Linux.  With more information about that, we could more
easily add functionality to our RaQs and Qubes, and we could do it with
less trepadation.

That said, the developers list is extremely helpful (even more so than
this list) in helping us with specifics of that interaction as we ask
the questions.  Would I prefer a book? Yes.  Can I live without one? 
Also yes.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672
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